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British Airways and Twinings say they have developed a better cuppa — that adjusts for flying altitudes and laws of physics that can affect the taste of tea in the sky.

Lower humidity on an aircraft can reduce our sense of taste, by as much as 30 per cent. Because most cabins are pressurized to about 8,000 feet, water will boil at about 91 degrees Celsius instead of the usual 100C.

But black tea — the kind the Brits drink — doesn’t infuse as well as in lower temperatures, so tea bags must stay in longer to get more flavour. But the water temperature continues to drop, so by the time the tea gets to a passenger, it tastes weak and flat.

“It means we can end up with a rather insipid cup of tea, rather than a flavourful one,” said Lynn McClelland, head of catering for British Airways, in a telephone interview.

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(Green and herbal teas infuse at lower temperatures, so they are not as affected by altitude).

For the past year, British Airways, which serve about 35 million cups of tea a year, has been working with Twinings, which has been in the tea business since 1706, to come up with a new exclusive blend.

They tested various teas on the ground with scientists and professional tasters and then took them up in the air to test them again and at different stages of a journey.

They came up what has been dubbed the Altitude blend by BA staffers — a mix of Assam, Kenyan and high-grown Ceylon teas.

“Certain black tea blends we had to rule out because they would not infuse below 100 degrees,” she said, adding the Ceylon type thrives on higher ground, in a slightly thinner atmosphere.

This special blend offers a full-bodied tea with flavour and colour, which McClelland said was also important, given “an insipid cup of tea is not the most attractive.”

The tea also had to work well, with or without milk, given some customers prefer their tea black.

Certified tea sommelier Nora Gubins of Toronto’s TeaQueen praised the airline’s decision to work with Twinings on developing a unique blend.

“It’s brilliant. It’s a very smart marketing technique,” she said. “I often say, ‘People grab a cup of coffee. But you take your time having a nice cup of tea.

“And one always associates that with England.”

Gubins confesses that when she flies, she usually steers clear of tea because she’s so fussy, but she may give the Altitude blend a try, if she gets the chance.

British Airways also worked on finding the right wines to serve in the air because a great wine on the ground might end up tasting flat at 35,000 feet as acidity and tannins are lost.

“You want some punch that still delivers at altitude,” McClelland said.

Now that the airline has what it believes is a better tea blend, the next project could well be coffee.

“The grounds are less porous at altitude, so you have to filter the coffee for slightly longer,” she said.

“Because it takes longer to get the coffee into a reasonable flavour profile, but by the time you do, you have lost several degrees of temperature. It’s not at hot as you would like it.”

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